Katie brought up Palin's meeting with Henry Kissinger this week, mentioning he is for direct diplomacy with Iran and Syria. She asked Palin whether the U.S. should meet with leaders of Iran and Syria.

Palin said you can't meet with leaders like Ahmadinejad without preconditions. She mocked Obama and called his plan to meet with leaders of Iran without preconditions "so off base," "beyond naive" and "beyond bad judgment." She gave Katie a little lecture on what diplomacy means.

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Katie asked her if Kissinger was naive for supporting meetings with these leaders without preconditions.

Palin responded that she never heard Kissinger say he would meet with these leaders without preconditions. After the interview ended, Katie came on with an update and said CBS checked with Kissinger and he confirmed he supports meeting with high ranking Iranian officials without preconditions.

Back to school, Gov. Palin. Speed learning may not be your forte. So much data to take in, so little time.

These are right-leaning independents, but they are more scared of Palin than they are of Obama. They react like George Will or David Frum, they think that she's just not anywhere near a serious candidate and she proves McCain is totally reckless.

My boss makes a particularly great bellwether because he did not decide between Bush and Kerry until Election Day. I don't know anyone else who fits that category. He never shuts up about Obama raising taxes, but I think Palin will ultimately win us his vote for this cycle.

After McCain's "visible from Neptune with the unaided eye" stunt today on the "bailout" deal, you're far from the only one who shares that opinion of him.

Until fairly recently I saw him as an opportunist who was milking the ridiculous "maverick" thing for all it was worth, but was still essentially a decent, if misguided, person. Then the Palin pick happened, and now his leaping into the middle of the financial mess, without having even read the bloody deal(!!!). How utterly sad to see any US Senator stoop to such a level.

I had already decided to vote for Obama/Biden, but now I'll enjoy it much more than I ever expected.

in showing the pattern of McCain's reckless behavior motivated by "me first" rather than his phony "country first" mantra. As someone here wrote, he tried his Hail Sarah and is now trying his Hail Mary. Neither is going to work.

McCain is showing himself to be massively unfit for the presidency. The drama queen business over the bail-out/debate is one big piece of evidence. His choice to put Palin on the ticket is the other. So good on you both for hammering this down.

I'm stunned that anybody takes McCain seriously at this point.

Not sure which major failing will be most evident to the public at large. But I'm very sympathetic to the view that McCain's stunt yesterday was largely aimed at taking attention away from Palin's disastrous interview with Couric. Cause it's pretty easy to see that she's clueless. And I think that hurts McCain a lot because that's a judgment voters can make for themselves. McCain has vouched for her repeatedly -- and now that we see what he was vouching for, he just looks terrible. With the bailout business there's more room for McCain to get away with things because people don't really understand what's at stake.

bear to even think about Palin, this question, after she said that Bush's speech was disturbing.

Me: Who's worse? in your mind? Bush? or Palin?

Friend: Bush!

I asked if she was sure and she said she was.

But I don't think I would be able to answer that.

However, Bush seems to have no interest in anything, so the decisions are made by people like Cheney, Rumsfeld & Rove (when they were there), and it would seem that it'd be similar in Palin's place (if she succeeded McCain prematurely) except for this Washington Post article's description of her activity as Governor.

It removes the sexism angle. Katie is the first woman to "break the glass ceiling" of solo anchoring a major network's evening news. And she's articulate, not to mention experienced at interviewing world leaders and politicians.

The difference between them was striking.

She probably had the highest ratings to date tonight with all the media artices (and blog posts) about it.

is so great in some quarters, palin is couric's chance to look like a real journalist. take down another woman and maybe the male-analysts will say she's earned her way as an anchor. katie's cahnce to profit by the sexism toward palin.

re: the next post: i hope didion writes at some point about this election. her political writings are brilliant too. love to get her take on both palin and obama.

looked skeptical of her answers and almost a little like she couldn't believe how bad the answers were. Then I thought she almost looked like she felt sorry for her, or like she was thinking, "is this for real?" Something. I don't watch Katie Couric much so I'm not sure if she's always like this or was it just this particular interview. Very Weird. What I get watching Palin is that she is 100% idealog. Scary to think she is this close. I hope the McCain campaign will be seen for the sham and scam that it is.

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

actually jeralyn, it matters very little what you, or i, or anyone else on this blog thinks of gov. palin's fitness for the veep slot. we weren't the ones being targeted by her nomination, the right-wing christian fundies were, anything else was always gravy.

most of those targeted probably haven't a clue or care who henry kissenger is, or what his position on meeting with the leaders of iran and syria are. gov. palin's secular ignorance will have zero effect on the religious base.

Palin responded that she never heard Kissinger say he would meet with these leaders without preconditions.

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After the interview ended, Katie came on with an update and said CBS checked with Kissinger and he confirmed he supports meeting with high ranking Iranian officials without preconditions.

Ergo: Kissinger did not confirm that the supports meeting leaders like Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Question is, can the McCain camp even be bothered to make this point? She looks like such a lost cause at the moment...

is operating with Sarah now. It appears she has risen to the level of incompetence. Not to disparage her as we all can rise to that point at some level. Hers is particularly dangerous. No amount of knowledge of foreign affairs or economics is going to overcome the basic personality and emotional inadequacies. The tendency to state things with authority which aren't factually validated is worrisome. It's worse than lying as it's unconscious and hence less amenable to corrective behavior.